Guardians of the Galaxy and Connecting to the Marvel Universe

by Christopher Barr

 some spoilers ahead

Guardians of the Galaxy was not only the most fun at the movie theater this summer blockbuster season but, the argument could be made that it was the most fun all year.  The only other movie I can think of that was a blast as well was The Lego Movie, also starring Chris Pratt.  Guardians is about friendships found in the most unlikely places but it is also about family, honour and the courage it takes to get there.

Guardians is a about a young boy here on Earth in 1988, whose mother dies in the hospital and not even five minutes later, that same young boy is abducted by a group of space pirates called The Ravagers led by Yondu.  All that he has with him is the clothes on his back, a backpack with a wrapped present from his mother and a Walkman.  The tape in the Walkman is labeled Awesome Mix Vol. 1, a music compilation that was put together by his mother.

This was a brilliant added piece of culture to the movie, not only did it provide the awesome soundtrack during the movie but it also tied everything together in the story, sort of like the Dude’s rug in The Big Lebowski.  Mainly the use of this portable tape cassette player was a reminder of the also great and deliciously cultured film, Pulp Fiction and Butch’s Gold Watch, you have any idea what his father had to go through to get him that watch?  I don’t have time to go in to it, but a lot.

Peter Quill, a.k.a Star-Lord has since grown up on extra-terrestrial worlds among the craziest most outrages aliens of the galaxy.  He’s become a bit of a thief for hire, a skilled man that can acquire special items for the highest price.  As he goes and executes these robberies he has his Walkman with him, playing the same tape over and over again.  He also loves every minute of it, because like Butch in Pulp Fiction, the sentimental value of this Walkman means everything to him, even worth risking his own life to protect it.  It’s his connection to his past, it’s his connection to Earth and the fact that it was all left behind so long ago.  The tape has his mother’s favorite songs on it, all songs from the 70’s and for him it’s all that’s left of her.  Whether it’s “I want you back” by the Jackson 5 or the always fun, “Hooked on a feeling” by Blue Swede, the movies samples of these 70’s tracks are throwbacks to all the early Tarantino films, and it's likely Guardians isn’t even hiding that fact, case in point, “Hooked on a feeling” from Reservoir Dogs.    

Quill gets his hands on a metal spherical artifact, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style, which becomes a popular item for crooks and thieves in the galaxy to get their hands on.  Korath, a cybernetic subservient of Ronan the Accuser of the Kree Empire, attempts to get the orb from Quill but Quill gets away.  This is how Quill meets up with and is arrested alongside Gamora, a green female assassin sent to get the orb from Quill for Ronan to give to the Thanos, and in turn, Thanos will destroy Nova Corps Home world capital, Xandar.  Drax the Destroyer, a monstrous inmate seeking revenge for the murder of his wife and child, and a pair of bounty hunters one called Rocket, a foul mouthed genetically engineered racoon, bomb maker and thief and his very tall and powerful, tree-like creature of a few words, Groot, join Quill and Gamora in an off-world prison facility where the preverbal key is thrown away.  These misfits in space become the Guardians of the Galaxy; a group, with wonderful chemistry, that now have a bounty on them by Yondu and are being tracked by Ronan, all the while trying to sell the orb before they learn of the devastating significance of the Infinity Stone’s powers.

I…am…….Groot

Rocket and Groot are both complete CGI characters that beautifully blend seamlessly into their live-action environment.  An environment rich with alien beings from all over the galaxy and places that are elaborate and detailed, that will allow this movie to set alongside of some of the great science fiction films out there, such as Star Wars and Star Trek and the always enjoyable Serenity, a movie, Joss Whedon’s first, that was based on his short-lived but much-loved TV series, Firefly.

Thanos is finally revealed and is later betrayed by Ronan, who retrieves the Infinity Stone and uses it to imbue himself with galactic, world-crushing powers.   The Tesseract (the space stone) from Captain America: The First Avenger, the end credits of the first Thor movie and throughout the plot of The Avengers, is one of six Infinity Stones that Thanos is in search for to fit in his Infinity Gauntlet, a weaponized glove that will allow him to commit galactic genocide anywhere his madness sees fit.  The Aether (the Reality Stone) was what was being fought over in Thor: The Dark World and in Guardians, Quill retrieved the Power Stone and Loki wielded the Mind Stone in his scepter to control his victims minds.  The Soul and Time stones are still out there for Thanos to get his hands on, it is likely that The Avengers 3 will be a battle to stop Thanos from joining all six stones together. 

The showdown at the end of Guardians with Ronan on his massive warship, The Dark Aster, is big and sprawling and is a reminder of the aerial battles in the first Star Wars Trilogy.  Yondu teams up with Quill and his crew, along with the Nova Corp fleet, an intergalactic military/police force, to defeat Ronan before his ship lands and he is able to destroy the Home World of Xandar, using power from the Infinity Stone in his massive Warhammer.  Loki in The Avengers, in a similar fashion, was able to empower his scepter with the Mind Stone to give him the power to open portals, transport and create holograms of himself.

The movie is a spectacular sight to behold, a wondrous array of cultures, worlds and those that inhabit them, but the movie is really about getting over differences, often racial discriminatory differences and allowing grudges to fade away in the background so one can do what’s right for the greater good.  Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot, maybe not Groot, all started in the beginning looking out for themselves and no one else.  The events of the movie and the fight to save something bigger then themselves is a lesson that here on Earth, we are in dire need of.